Need to boost my PH

JCH

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Hello everyone! Does anyone know how far a skimmer will suck air in from outside? I’m having trouble keeping my ph above 7.8 with the house closed up and the A/C on. Today was cooler outside so I opened up all the windows and my ph jumped to 8.2 in just a few hours. I would have to run an air tube into my basement and out the basement window. So , probably about 25 feet. Does anyone out there know if that is feasible? Thanks in advance ! My friends call me Big J
 

adamg77

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I have a skimz 167 and have run it from my living room into the attic and out of the attic via a vent in the top of my roof. It’s prolly 30’ maybe longer through 1/2” PVC. Got a little gate valve but it’s running wide open. I can hear it sucking in air at the end of the pipe and I have had no negatives. It did raise it a bit but it wasn’t magic. I’m hovering around 7.9 Ph. Hope it works for you!
 
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JCH

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I have a skimz 167 and have run it from my living room into the attic and out of the attic via a vent in the top of my roof. It’s prolly 30’ maybe longer through 1/2” PVC. Got a little gate valve but it’s running wide open. I can hear it sucking in air at the end of the pipe and I have had no negatives. It did raise it a bit but it wasn’t magic. I’m hovering around 7.9 Ph. Hope it works for you!
Ok , that’s good info . I was going to use soft tube down through the floor into the basement and drill a hole through the window frame out into the window well. Yeah , hope it works?!! Thanks !
 

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I’m running my skimmers air intake to the outside as well, and, for me as well, it wasn’t a night and day change, but it got me from 7.8 to about 8.0.

What I found out during install of the airline though is you want the line you’re running to be at least twice the is of the air intake tube. Like, for my living room tank, I have a Red Sea skimmer with a 1/4 id tube, and after that 1ft length of tube, I have it going into a 1/2” soft pvc tube which runs about 15 ft to the window:

What I ended up doing is run the air line from the outside into a co2 acrubber, and then into the skimmer. I have to change about a cup and a half of co2 media every 2 weeks and that keeps me at 8.2 by the early afternoon, and 8.0 first thing in the morning.
 

Clownfish2

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Hello everyone! Does anyone know how far a skimmer will suck air in from outside? I’m having trouble keeping my ph above 7.8 with the house closed up and the A/C on. Today was cooler outside so I opened up all the windows and my ph jumped to 8.2 in just a few hours. I would have to run an air tube into my basement and out the basement window. So , probably about 25 feet. Does anyone out there know if that is feasible? Thanks in advance ! My friends call me Big J
I have my skimmer connected to a one inch pvc pipe in my garage sump and runs about 25 feet to the attic. pH increased to 8.3. There was a slight change in air pressure to the skimmer running this distance, so I had to adjust the bubble height in the skimmer slightly.

The stock skimmer flexible hose connects to a barb fitting and to a 1/2 reducer fitting connected to 1 inch pvc pipe.
 
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JCH

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I’m running my skimmers air intake to the outside as well, and, for me as well, it wasn’t a night and day change, but it got me from 7.8 to about 8.0.

What I found out during install of the airline though is you want the line you’re running to be at least twice the is of the air intake tube. Like, for my living room tank, I have a Red Sea skimmer with a 1/4 id tube, and after that 1ft length of tube, I have it going into a 1/2” soft pvc tube which runs about 15 ft to the window:

What I ended up doing is run the air line from the outside into a co2 acrubber, and then into the skimmer. I have to change about a cup and a half of co2 media every 2 weeks and that keeps me at 8.2 by the early afternoon, and 8.0 first thing in the morning.
Oh ,, so maybe it’s not worth the trouble to get such a small bump in the PH unless I add a scrubber?? Ok, I’m going to look into that and see what the cost is . Thanks!!
 

RSNJReef

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Oh ,, so maybe it’s not worth the trouble to get such a small bump in the PH unless I add a scrubber?? Ok, I’m going to look into that and see what the cost is . Thanks!!
I Jerry rigged a scrubber with a deli container and barb fittings, but, look at the co2 scrubber lids on the fish of hex website and look at a small phosban reactor to make your life a little easier to n the install.

I’d also say the outside air may still be worth it, a 0.2ph bump is still substantial, but, you could try the scrubber method and see what you get.

Basically the outside air method is more work, but the co2 scrubber method would cost more, and has a recurring cost, but you could buy the co2 scrubbing media from BRS in bulk.
 
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JCH

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What do you dose for alkalinity?
I dose soda ash at a rate of only 6ml a day for 100 gallons system. That’s another issue I’m having. For some reason my Alk runs really high at close to 12 and I’m having to dose 72ml of mag just to get it up to about 1325 . Cal is stable at around 420. Excellent number huh ! Lol !
 

jimfish98

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Not sure where your Nitrates and Phosphates are at, but you can also consider an algae reactor to consume CO2 and nutrients. It may raise your PH a little, help with nutrients, and prevent you from running hose/pipe through your house.
 
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JCH

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I Jerry rigged a scrubber with a deli container and barb fittings, but, look at the co2 scrubber lids on the fish of hex website and look at a small phosban reactor to make your life a little easier to n the install.

I’d also say the outside air may still be worth it, a 0.2ph bump is still substantial, but, you could try the scrubber method and see what you get.

Basically the outside air method is more work, but the co2 scrubber method would cost more, and has a recurring cost, but you could buy the co2 scrubbing media from BRS in bulk.
Yeah I’m dumping so much cash into this 100 gallon system already , really hate to add another reoccurring expense to this system!! But ,,,, the addiction to the hobby rages on ! I’ll probably do it anyway? Chasing that 8.3 number. Idk? My corals look good, color is awesome, but my growth continues to be slow.
 
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JCH

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Not sure where your Nitrates and Phosphates are at, but you can also consider an algae reactor to consume CO2 and nutrients. It may raise your PH a little, help with nutrients, and prevent you from running hose/pipe through your house.
Well, phosphate runs a little high but stable at 1 and no algae in the tank and my nitrate is stable between .05 and 1.0 . Don’t have room for any more equipment under the stand , I put some seachem phos bond in the sump the other day to see if I could bring the phos down a little
 

billyocean

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I dose soda ash at a rate of only 6ml a day for 100 gallons system. That’s another issue I’m having. For some reason my Alk runs really high at close to 12 and I’m having to dose 72ml of mag just to get it up to about 1325 . Cal is stable at around 420. Excellent number huh ! Lol !
6 ml a day in 100 is pretty much nada. Is the salt you're using a high alk? What's the age of the tank and how many/what type coral do you have? What I'm leaning toward is raising ph via soda ash or kalkwasser but at that dosing rate it won't do much of anything.
 
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JCH

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6 ml a day in 100 is pretty much nada. Is the salt you're using a high alk? What's the age of the tank and how many/what type coral do you have? What I'm leaning toward is raising ph via soda ash or kalkwasser but at that dosing rate it won't do much of anything.
I’m using the reef crystals salt the label doesn’t give the alk number but my salinity is steady at 1.025. This tank has been running for 1.5 years now. It’s a mixed reef with 25 small corals that consist of sps up high and lps on the lower half. It runs very stable, but I don’t know why I don’t see more uptake of the alk ? I know it’s too high at 11.5 or 12 . I’m getting growth but not nearly what I see them talking about on all the YouTube channels?
 

billyocean

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Something is off...maybe better minds can advise. Are you doing a lot of water changes? I'm thinking they may not be consuming much because the alk is so high. I know there are people that have success at that range but 8-9 may be the better option here. Again..I'm just kind of troubleshooting. If consumption goes up then dosing goes up which in turn will raise your ph more than the other options I believe. I dont want to steer you wrong so anyone else that has some thoughts would be welcome.
 
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JCH

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Something is off...maybe better minds can advise. Are you doing a lot of water changes? I'm thinking they may not be consuming much because the alk is so high. I know there are people that have success at that range but 8-9 may be the better option here. Again..I'm just kind of troubleshooting. If consumption goes up then dosing goes up which in turn will raise your ph more than the other options I believe. I dont want to steer you wrong so anyone else that has some thoughts would be welcome.
Ok yeah, I do daily auto water changes totaling 10 gallons a week. Tank looks awesome but the slow growth has been a head scratcher. Idk maybe my expectations are too high? I know BRS ran an experiment running high alk and claimed there was more growth but the corals were more fragile? Anyway appreciate all your input, I’ll keep tinkering with it. Probably do the co2 scrubber if I can find room?
 

Troylee

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Ok yeah, I do daily auto water changes totaling 10 gallons a week. Tank looks awesome but the slow growth has been a head scratcher. Idk maybe my expectations are too high? I know BRS ran an experiment running high alk and claimed there was more growth but the corals were more fragile? Anyway appreciate all your input, I’ll keep tinkering with it. Probably do the co2 scrubber if I can find room?
Ditch all that and the soda ash and just top off with kalk! It will bring it up! More corals will help also! I have the same problem in Vegas as it’s 115 outside now so the house is sealed up! My kalk top off keeps my ph up there without any issues! I even added a fan to create more evap and it rose even higher with keeping my alk 10-11 and I use reef crystals.
IMG_4366.png
 

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Sealed house in south Florida with people and pets means my pH never rises above 7.7 naturally aspirated. Yet Fuge/ATS got it to 8.1. No way I'm running lines through walls or ceiling and skimmer not even in my plans. Keep it simple
 

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